SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (KFVS) - The Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) is encouraging those who receive a COVID-19 vaccination to use the V-safe After Vaccination Health Checker (v-safe).

V-safe is a vaccine safety monitoring system in which participants receive text messages with health survey links for up to a year after their vaccination. More than 9.2 million people have enrolled.

V-safe, a program designed to monitor how well the vaccines work over time, can only be used if you have a smartphone. That makes it inaccessible to approximately one in five Americans. The digital ...